Click to viewCNN correspondent Nic Robertson has a bone or two to pick with Fox News, which reported today that he and other journalists were used by the Libyan Ministry of Information as human shields, in a successful bid to block a coming, second attack on a compound in Tripoli, supposedly controlled by Qaddafi.
In your gray Monday media column: Dan Abrams stands united with Arianna Huffington, Janet Robinson's hard times, Robin Roberts tweets, Disney wants (more of) your kids' money, Foster Kamer to the NYO, and a Sulzberger story.
This memo from editor Bill Keller just went out to the New York Times newsroom, celebrating the official release of the four NYT employees who'd been detained in Libya since last week. His comments on the resources the paper calls on to help rescue its staffers are interesting and worth noting.
Earlier this month, former Senator Chris Dodd became the new CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, making him, in essence, Hollywood's chief lobbyist. This was notable, since Dodd—a onetime favorite of populists—had repeatedly promised not to become a lobbyist when he left the Senate. Glenn Greenwald reflected on the depressing statement that Dodd's hypocrisy made about the entire American political system:
Tireless independent Libyan journalist Mohammad "Mo" Nabbous was killed today in Benghazi as Muammar Qaddafi's forces assaulted the city. In the audio recording above — Mo's last, from his Livestream channel Libya al-Hurra — you can hear him in the middle of an intense battle when the sound suddenly cuts off.
In your lovely Friday media column: HuffPo dares its unpaid writers to do something, James O'Keefe is a hypocrite, a magazine investor has some magazines you can invest in, Bill O'Reilly is mad, and free NYTimes.com access, for you.
The four New York Times staffers who went missing in Libya earlier this week—reporters Anthony Shadid and Stephen Farrell, and photographers Tyler Hicks and Lynsey Addario—are reportedly going to be released today. Muammar Qaddafi's son Saif told Christiane Amanpour that the four were picked up by the Libyan Army:
In your glitchtastic Thursday media column: the NYT paywall debate continues, News Corp gets sued, a WaPo plagiarist reporter is suspended, a pundit is harassed, and writers are disappointed.
Branded as a revelatory scoop uncovering previously unknown donations from George Soros to NPR, James O'Keefe's latest sting on NPR was debunked as a non-story within hours of its release.
In your enlightening Wednesday media column: Bob Woodward hates the internet, Newark has a friend in Arianna, magazine editors return to magazines, I Want Media gets purchased, and Lester Holt is irradiated.
Two New York Times reporters and two photographers have been missing in Libya for more than 24 hours, according to the Times.
Yesterday, Tech Crunch writer Alexia Tsotsis did a noble thing: she more or less told her parent company to fuck off, in public, after a Moviefone/ AOL rep emailed her suggesting that the "snark" be "toned down." That was entertaining. But the response of Moviefone is even more entertaining! If you like unbelievable things.
Mary Elizabeth Williams is a longtime staff writer at Salon. Her job entails finding whatever self-explanatory thing was popular on the internet yesterday, and writing several hundred words today purporting to shed light on it. She could make a great living tutoring layabout high school kids in how to pad two paltry thoughts out into an entire term paper.
In your interactive Tuesday media column: anywhere is better than "South by," the NYT vs HuffPo feud continues, the Tribune bankruptcy is predictably troublesome, Carl Paladino hates the press, and your mandatory Katie Couric rumor of the day.
